Summer driving season is officially underway and the good news is Americans look set to save on gasoline compared with last summer, but not by much.
The US Energy Information Administration just released their Summer Fuels Outlook and expect “that regularâ€Âgrade gasoline retail prices, which averaged $3.69 per gallon last summer, will average $3.63 per gallon during the current summer (April through September) driving season.” Keep reading →
A reversal of fortunes is underway between major energy commodity markets, with global oil prices trending downward while US natural gas has been showing signs of life breaking above $4 per million Btu. In its latest Monthly Oil Market Report, the International Energy Agency discussed their view of why the recent weakening in global oil benchmark Brent futures prices might be “relatively short-lived.”
“By early April, frontâ€Âmonth Brent futures had tumbled to just shy of $104/bbl for the first time since midâ€ÂJune, and the backwardation on the Brent curve has eased,” the report said, but oil supply and refining capacity have been growing faster than demand. Backwardation is when prices in the distant future are lower than prompt month prices. Keep reading →
Changing oil market dynamics appear set to reduce the wide price differential between Brent crude oil and WTI that developed within the past few years, the Energy Information Administration said in its latest Short-Term Energy and Summer Fuels Outlook. These global benchmark crude oil grades are also expected to generally decrease in price from the averages seen last year, while US natural gas prices move well above the historic lows recorded last April.
“EIA expects that the Brent crude oil spot price, which averaged $112 per barrel in 2012 and rose to $119 per barrel in early February 2013, will average $108 per barrel in 2013 and $101 per barrel in 2014. The projected discount of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil to Brent, which increased to a monthly average of more than $20 per barrel in February 2013, is forecast to average $14 per barrel in 2013 and $9 per barrel in 2014, as planned new pipeline capacity lowers the cost of moving midâ€Âcontinent crude oil to the Gulf Coast refining centers,” the EIA said in the report. Keep reading →
Hopes that the advent of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports from the United States to Europe could help bring down European prices may prove misguided, according to VTB Capital’s head of energy research, Colin Smith.
“Is US LNG going to cut gas prices in Europe? Probably not by very much, if at all,” Smith said at the VTB Capital New York Investment Forum on April 10. Keep reading →
A “crescent of chaos” emerging from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and tensions with Iran could lead to a dramatic turnaround in the price of oil, according to Nomura’s analysis.
Brent crude, which fell to an eight-month low last week on weak U.S. jobs data, is set to climb following Iran’s presidential election in June,the firm said in research published on Tuesday. Keep reading →
The markets fell on Wednesday, led by tumbling energy and financial shares, as traders responded to signs that the economic recovery might not be as strong as anticipated.
Today’s Markets Keep reading →
It’s a commonly used analogy for the global oil market: Crude oil is fungible and supplies from
producing countries and companies enter a giant pool that is drained by a wide variety of consumers. Analysts, academics and politicians often talk of the global oil trade in this manner, saying that additional supplies of oil – regardless of where they originate – are good for US energy security because increased volumes available on the global market should exert downward price pressure. Well, perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s not that simple.
The situation is clarified in a recent journal article titled “Crude Oil Is Not Fungible, Where It Comes from Does Matter, and Global Markets Are More Fragmented Than Many Think.” The piece, written by Jonathan Chanis, a long-time commodity trader, finance expert and current Columbia University professor, appeared in American Foreign Policy Interests: The Journal of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy. Keep reading →
An industry source told Breaking Energy last November the two greatest challenges companies operating in Alberta’s oil sands region face are access to markets and skilled labor. Alberta Energy Minister Ken Hughes elaborated on these and other issues during a recent phone call.
In a scenario where the Keystone XL Pipeline is not approved by the Obama Administration, Minister Hughes said companies have lots of different options and that rail has become “compelling.” Although generally less efficient than transporting oil via pipeline, rail could be used to bring Canadian oil as far as the Gulf Coast and maybe the West Coast and Mid-continent as well, he said. Keep reading →
It’s telling that a panel discussion about using technology to reduce the environmental impacts associated with Canadian oil sands development ended up mainly being about dire market access issues impacting producers.
At the FT Global Investment Series: Focus on Canada conference held in New York City this week, corporate executives were clearly concerned about reducing greenhouse gas emissions from oil sands projects, but they were also very concerned about the billions of dollars being lost from commodity price differentials between Canadian heavy oil and other grades. Keep reading →
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s death is not likely to result in near-term changes to the Venezuelan oil industry or global energy landscape, but it could ultimately result in political change that would reopen the country’s energy industry to foreign investment.
As news of Chavez’s death swept through IHS CERAWeek, the world’s largest conference for energy executives, in Houston on Tuesday afternoon, participants flocked to televisions, looking for news on the political future of a country that has the second largest oil reserves in the world. Keep reading →
